Category Archives: Archive Solutions

Post navigation

Blu-ray Drives Don’t Render Your DVDs Obsolete
It’s important to remember that just because you’re upgrading your equipment, doesn’t mean you have to give up your entire library of DVDs. Blu-ray manufacturers have included the ability for their units to play back standard DVDs. You can view discs at standard resolution or have the player upscale the DVD playback signal to match 720p/1080i, or in some cases even 1080p mode, which will be a better match on your high resolution computer monitor or output to a compatible HDTV – so you don’t lose those either.

External Is EasiestThis wouldn’t be at all interesting, storage capacities being what they are, but Blu-ray is the storage methodology of choice for HD and 3D content. The extra detail takes up more virtual storage, but the Blu-ray disc takes no more physical space.

When purchasing a Blu-ray Disc drive for your PC, there are several factors to consider. Perhaps the most important is simply whether to get an internal drive that you fit your PC’s chassis or an external drive you simply plug into any available port.

If you go for an internal drive, you must ensure you have a slot for it in your PC, as well as the physical space to fit it, and the expertise to do so. Whereas, external drives are easier to install, portable, and can be shared between computers.

Backing up data to a BD-R is as easy as burning a CD or DVD. Companies such as Nero, Roxio, CyberLink and DIGISTOR provide the necessary burning software; while modern operating systems like Windows 7 and 8.1 let you add and remove files to and from a BD-RE disc, allowing it to be reused.

DIGISTOR offers a range of simply plug-and-play external Blu-ray drives that are compatible with Windows and Mac OS X. View our products online or contact a representative at 1(800) 816-1886 for help finding a Blu-ray burner that best fits your needs.

Your business is made up of data, records, statistics, and confidential information. The value of that data goes up with its volume – as does the cost and time spent storing it. So it’s no wonder that you might be drawn to syncing software such as Dropbox Business. The service that’s primarily known for file sharing and collaboration is now launching efforts to promise cheap space, regular backups, and simplified syncing – Something that sounds like a no-brainer for busy business owners that would rather not think twice, or pay extra, to store records that are rarely used.

Having your data automatically synced with multiple devices and sent off to a repository in the cloud sounds great in theory – until you take a second glance at some common legal requirements that make quick and accurate data recover a must: retaining your vital information and records for extended periods of time, the ability to recover data in its original, unaltered form, and even limitations on what information can and can’t be stored across international borders. These requirements should all be considered when seeking storage for legal compliance and indicate that cloud services intended for collaboration may better be left to syncing.

The Myth of Cloud Storage

The number one reason cloud storage isn’t a viable archiving solution? Those terms and conditions agreed to when initializing your storage account ensure that the company isn’t held responsible for your data! But isn’t “keeping it safe” why you’re putting it there in the first place?

We’ve read through the fine print and found our fears confirmed through Jeff Pederson, manager of data recovery operations for Kroll Ontrack. He informs customers that cloud storage isn’t a secure contingency plan as “virtualization contracts often claim no liability for data corruption, deletion, destruction or loss.”

But My Cloud Storage Claims to Backup Data

While they may promise big, cloud storage services seem pretty reluctant on the whole to backup your data regularly.

A professional photographer’s experience highlighted in Forbes explores her frustrations when trusting 2.5 terabytes of data work to the service Carbonite, only to find that six months later the initial backup still hadn’t been completed due to limitations placed on data uploads.

When contacted “a Carbonite spokesperson confirmed the bandwidth throttling and sent me a link to where it is clearly spelled out in the Carbonite customer knowledge base. Carbonite claims that average users actually only achieve upload speeds of 3GB to 4GB per day for the first 200GB.”

The article states at that rate your data could take up to 360 days for the initial backup! That’s an entire year of unprotected data just waiting for a disaster.

The Big Backup

Cloud storage solutions are great for short-term offloading or conveniently syncing with multiple devices, but still can’t be considered a reliable solution for long-term data retention no matter what they name the service.

So while they remain great for sharing family photos, corporate files deserve more careful treatment when ensuring the durability of your data is a must. Until Dropbox and similar services can confirm they will shoulder responsibility for any data that’s lost or damaged, the services remain short on delivering the key requirement that any business owner should demand of their archiving solution: reliable storage data for easy retrieval in its original form.

Here at Digistor we’re aware of the concern over recent high-profile data breaches – but did you realize the same scalable solution Facebook is implementing for a complete revamping of their secure storage backups is already available to you as a consumer? The need for worry-free systems that offer as much – or as little – space as you need is growing for companies and individuals, alike.

Repeated Violations of Privacy Are More Scandalous than Leaked Photos.

Right on the heels of the cringe-inducing publicity of several high profile hacked iCloud accounts that left a nation of casual cloud-storage users feeling vulnerable, comes another system attack that should have every responsible vendor searching for more secure options.

Home Depot has confirmed that on Monday that hackers were able to break into the chain’s in-store payment systems in what could be the largest known data breach of any retail company’s computer network. According to recent coverage by the NY Times, affected customers could number over 60 million.

Data Breaches Cost More Than Your Reputation

The sheer scale of customers affected by Home Depot’s data breach surpasses last year’s title-holding hacker attack into Target’s systems – An ordeal that affected 40 million customers across the US and Canada.

And if that wasn’t embarrassing enough, Home Depot’s attempts to offer reconciliation include a paltry offering of identity protection and credit monitoring services, which hasn’t deferred customers in Georgia from already filing a class-action lawsuit against the retailer for failing to protect customers from fraud or alerting them in a timely manner.

Digistor’s Solutions Back Up More Than Your Data

The NY Times has reported that

“The Department of Homeland Security and the Secret Service recently estimated that more than 1,000 businesses in the United States had been infected with malware that is programmed to siphon payment card details from cash registers in stores. They believed that many of these businesses did not even know they were sharing customers’ credit card information.”

NPR’s All Tech Considered has coined the phrase Data Breach-Fatigue` when discussing the overwhelming feeling of numbness consumers have regarding the repeated notifications businesses large and small to keep an eagle eye on their accounts.

“We are in the trough of disillusionment,” says Gartner security analyst Avivah Litan. “Over 1,000 retailers have been hit; it’s not limited to Home Depot. There are 999 others that no one’s talking about.”

As a business owner, the fear of a data breach increases with the knowledge that your system’s security is depended upon by others. And when faulty security has the capability to both cripple a company’s good name, and their bottom line if found responsible for restitution, you may find yourself turning to alternatives for secure data storage and archiving.

One of the biggest headaches that PC users must contend with is updating all of their software when they make the move to a new operating system. Eventually, everyone needs to migrate to a newer OS as older versions will become outdated and lose vendor support. Microsoft’s recent efforts to phase out Windows XP are a great example of this. Anyone who continues to rely on XP will have to cope with vulnerabilities and other coding issues without the assistance of the OS’s creator. As such, many Windows users have moved on to the platform’s latest iteration, 8.1.

Windows 8 and its subsequent update – Windows 8.1 present a notable shift from older platforms. While Windows 7 was essentially XP with a face lift, Windows 8 has been designed with future user preferences in mind. Specifically, Microsoft designed its latest OS to work seamlessly and effortlessly on tablets and other mobile devices. By bridging the gap between traditional PC systems and mobile layouts, Windows 8 is a wholly distinct OS. That means that consumers need to take care that their software is compatible with this latest PC platform. There’s arguably nothing more frustrating than investing in an application that won’t even run on the most current hardware.

Archiving data on Windows 8
One area that consumers should take particular note of is data archiving software. PC users don’t want to run the risk of being left in the cold when their outdated product fails to back up one-of-a-kind documents and files. Data loss can happen in the blink of an eye and without warning, so having an effective tool in place should be a primary concern. As an industry-leader in this field, DIGISTOR is always on the forefront of the latest data archiving solutions. Our REWIND software enables Windows users to back up their important photos, videos and other files with ease. Because REWIND is compatible with Windows 8.1, consumers don’t need to worry about losing functionality when making the jump to the latest PC platform.

Getting the most out of REWIND is easy as pie. All you need is a Blu-ray burner and discs to get started on archiving your collection of irreplaceable information and documents. REWIND has been designed to eliminate any potential headaches, providing consumers with the most user-friendly data archiving software on the market. Navigating the REWIND interface is a breeze, helping individuals avoid any missteps that could derail the backup process. Any Windows 8 users who want the peace of mind knowing their most important files are securely archived should download the free REWIND trial and see what all the fuss is about.

Data archiving solutions have been widely accepted in the corporate world, giving enterprise leaders the peace of mind of knowing that even in the event of a catastrophic data loss incident, their most important historical records will be retained. But why stop at the enterprise level? There's no reason that other industries cannot similarly benefit from the use of archiving tools. In fact, some sectors have an arguably greater need for these resources as the amount of data they generate is off the charts. Specifically, universities and other institutions of higher education produce a great deal of information that needs to be stored for the long haul. Given the amount of in-depth research that is conducted at these schools, historical records need to be archived and made available whenever needed.

It would be difficult to overstate how much data is coursing through university networks and systems. Everything from enrollment records to research material must be cataloged, stored and kept in a state that permits access at a later date. Consider, for instance, the widespread switch from paper-based documents to digital ones. Many student records, grade reports and even reference materials are now stored on a server or hard drive somewhere instead of in a filing cabinet or on a library shelf.

Like every other sector, higher education is making the most of big data advancements, leaning on analytics tools to improve every facet of university operations. Under these circumstances, no piece of information can be deemed inconsequential and instead must be archived in the event that it could provide some meaningful insight.

All of these factors have come together to make data archiving a pressing need for institutions of higher education. For instance, the Indiana University Scholarly Data Archive can hold as much as 42 petabytes of data for the school's research purposes alone. The platform provides a two-fold service for the organization: storing important information for later use and backing up research records in the event that it needs to be recovered following a data loss incident.

Choosing the right platform
University officials must be mindful of their data archiving needs and find solutions that meet their specific demands. Legacy tape-based platforms may not be able to measure up to today's storage standards. For instance, tapes will become demagnetized as the years roll on, increasing the likelihood that some important kernel of information will be lost forever. Writing on his StorageMojo blog, data storage expert Robin Harris mentioned another compelling reason to forgo tape as a potential archiving tool, explaining that in order to maintain the integrity of the format's materials, tape users would need to deploy strict climate control processes. In addition to being expensive and arduous to implement, such technology may not be supported by an institution's data center.

Universities require a far more reliable, durable and simple solution to their data archiving needs. Again, higher education administrators should look to other sectors for inspiration addressing this issue. Many tech-savvy companies including Amazon and Facebook have tested archiving tools that are built upon optical discs in recent months. These organizations made waves earlier this year when they divulged details about Blu-ray-based cold storage systems for their data center operations. Consumers who associate Blu-ray with movies and video games may be surprised that these discs could shoulder the data archiving workload of tech-giant like Facebook, but those familiar with the media know better.

Blu-ray meets data archiving needs
Blu-ray offers a range of benefits that other forms of storage media simply cannot touch. Perhaps Blu-ray's greatest asset is its scalability. The technology's costs are decreasing just as its storage capacity continues to rise, making it a sensible solution from a pure financial perspective. But that low cost makes it a breeze for adopters to quickly scale up their archiving operations without needing to break the bank investing in new hardware. Additional discs can be added to an enterprise archiving tool at a moment's notice. This way, university leaders won't run the risk of being caught off guard by a sudden surge in data.

Those same material and environmental factors that make tape such a gamble for archiving are of no concern to Blu-ray users. These discs are remarkably durable, capable of remaining functional for decades in less-than-ideal storage conditions. Whereas tape will break down unless treated appropriately, Blu-ray discs will offer reliable data retrieval even in poor environments. In addition, because these discs are so affordable, organizations can create as many backups as they like.

When looking at possible data archiving solutions, institutions of higher education should prioritize scalability, durability and reliability. The last thing one of these organizations needs is to lose critical data backups because it chose to use a faulty platform. Optical media, and Blu-ray in particular, provides the full range of benefits that businesses look for in a high-quality archiving tool. Universities should consider taking advantage of these resources for their own needs as well.

Data is becoming the modern day currency of many organizations, as more businesses look to leverage collected information to improve their operations and market standing. However, processing and analyzing big data is becoming significantly more complicated. Metrics are being generated from a variety of different sources, making it difficult to run the same procedures on each statistic. As the characteristics of data continue to expand, it will be integral for companies to ensure that their storage options are able to archive this information for future use.

Businesses struggle with data variety
Traditionally, big data processes have been reserved for organizations with enough resources to support this trend. As more businesses start to leverage analytics tools, however, they can better facilitate data collection. While these efforts have been known to overwhelm firms with the volume of information, this aspect may not be the only issue data scientists are running into. According to a survey by computational database management system designer Paradigm4, 71 percent of respondents found that the variety of data was the reason why big data was so difficult to analyze, eWEEK reported. In addition, almost half of participants claimed that putting data into relational database tables was challenging, and 39 percent stated that the expansion of big data processes made their jobs more stressful.

Big data is growing, making it significantly harder to perform the same analytics processes businesses have been running for years. In fact, more than one-third of data scientists noted that their data is too massive to send to their analytics tools, taking up too much time to acquire necessary resources.

Choose the best archival solution
When it comes to big data, organizations will need to have optimal storage solutions for their information to ensure that it can be leveraged at a moment's notice. The New York Times noted that decision-makers will have to pay particular attention to the storage type and compatibility of the solution. If the chosen archive service does not work well with mission-critical systems, for example, it will make it significantly harder to transfer important metrics to the storage device.

DIGISTOR's enterprise data archiving solutions can easily handle these requirements by providing drives that withstand regular wear-and-tear while being built with the best components. DIGISTOR's drives work seamlessly with numerous systems and can be easily formatted by the user. This ensures that the drives are reliable for business needs and that they will be able to be leveraged for years to come.

Although no business wants to think about it, disaster can strike at any time, crippling important systems, creating significant chaos and causing essential data to potentially be lost in the process. For this reason, organizations have increasingly been looking to protect their data with the best solutions possible. Whether the threat comes from malware or severe weather conditions, sensitive files must have a backup available at all times to ensure that employees are able to get systems running again. However, if the company hasn't observed data archiving best practices, they will be considerably set back in these efforts and will expend additional expenses to fully recover.

With the number of devices entering the workplace, organizations are generating more data than ever before and it's becoming more difficult to keep track of it all. However, because of the rise of big data, storage devices are constantly improving and becoming more accessible, according to ITWeb. Decision-makers are no longer just considering the capacity of their solutions, but are now factoring in how to efficiently handle the data they are collecting. This element will be critical to ensuring that they obtain a solution that meets their needs without compromising their important files. In addition, many solutions will have automated backup capabilities which enable users to have the most recent information available at all times. This will create less chaos in an emergency and will make the data readily available for use.

"Furthermore, placing this data automatically on the right performance level results in organizations having a storage system that offers optimal performance without them having to manually manage the data sets daily," ITWeb stated.

Leveraging cold storage for backup and recovery
It's important to note that storage solutions are not one-size-fits-all, and there are numerous standards that must be adhered to. For these reasons, cold storage makes the most sense for many businesses. With four different levels of storage, organizations can choose the one that makes the most sense for their requirements, according to InfoStor. Polar collection, for example, takes hold of data that may never be used, while chilly collection often needs up to 10 percent of its data back throughout a one-year period. Icy collection involves data that will not be used very often and cold collection has a return rate of 2 to 5 percent of its data over a year. This amount of specificity, along with several other options, shows that businesses can easily find the type of cold storage they need without too much customization required.

Another reason that cold storage is becoming so popular is the amount of control that management has over its own data. Much like other physical storage options, cold storage can be accessed quickly but does not have the same threats as online platforms, making it less likely to be breached by malware or other third-party attacks. Numerous organizations, including Facebook, are taking advantage of this approach to recover information and ensure that it remains secure.

Information is essential for businesses as they use their reports to make important decisions and drive development for the future. However, this data is increasingly being targeted by malware and other malicious entities that can bring down operations. In this type of environment, it's absolutely critical to choose the best solution for data archival and storage. While many managers view online platforms as the answer, recent developments in the protection of these deployments show that they may not be the optimal choice for corporate information.

Online storage reviewable by law
Many organizations move their sensitive files to the cloud and other online solutions in order to have constant access, but rulings by officials state that this platform isn't as secure from prying eyes as owners hope. According to Engadget, a New York judge stated that U.S. search warrants could be used for digital information, whether it was housed locally or globally. While there were challenges to this notion, the U.S. government recently backed up the claim, stating that the Fourth Amendment protections are not the same for files in online storage as they are for physical data. In a world where data breaches are a rising occurrence, it should be no surprise that the government wants to keep up with activities in the online storage space. However, Microsoft disputed the ruling, claiming that protections should be extended to digital content and that the government's views of this material on foreign deployments are wrong.

"From the Justice Department's point of view, this law is necessary in an age where 'fraudsters' and 'hackers' use electronic communications in not just the U.S. but abroad as well," Engadget stated. "Indeed, the Microsoft account in this case is in relation to a drug-trafficking investigation. However, Microsoft believes there are wide-ranging implications for such a statement, and it's not the only company that thinks so."

Physical storage more secure overall
Blu-ray discs are increasingly becoming favored as backup devices for a number of large organizations. Most notably, Facebook is using this hardware for cold storage of information. Physical backups can be easily accessed and are extremely durable. The performance of Blu-ray discs will always remain constant, ensuring that users are able to leverage it at a moment's notice. In addition, the organization will have total control over their sensitive data at all times, mitigating the potential for it to be corrupted or stolen by external parties. Because this type of storage is covered under the Fourth Amendment, it will be more advantageous to utilize it over online-based platforms. This will ensure that backups are always available and are not open to digital vulnerabilities.

Despite their many differences, most sectors have more in common than industry members might realize. Seemingly business-oriented tools can often have tangible applications in other verticals, bringing the same benefits to a wide variety of organizations. This is particularly true of the healthcare industry and data archiving solutions. While long-term storage drives may appear to be most readily useful for large enterprises and data centers, they can offer the same level of quality and performance to hospitals, medical centers and other healthcare organizations.

Medical facilities are in the midst of an information boom. These organizations are currently being flooded by incoming data, including patient files, financial documents and medical records. There is no such thing as disposable data in the healthcare sphere, meaning that everything needs to be documented and stored for later use. Data archiving solutions are increasingly becoming a critical need for medical centers, particularly as they continue to face pressure to transition to digital records. The federal government has pushed the healthcare community to discard paper-based filing systems in favor of electronic documents, offering incentives to those organizations that can demonstrate "meaningful use" of electronic health records in their practice.

According to a recent HIMSS Analytics survey, such policies have significantly driven the need for better data management within healthcare organizations – and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.

"By 2015, most hospitals are expected to have undergone a massive, data- and reform-driven transformation," said HIMSS Analytics vice president Lorren Pettit. "Between the conversion to ICD-10 for better coding, meeting meaningful use milestones for data sharing at the point-of-care, and the continued influx of EMR/EHR systems, hospitals will have created an exponential proliferation of data volume."

Medical records need to be archived
Due to the sensitive nature of these records, medical centers will require reliable methods of archiving them for later use. Even those organizations that leverage cloud-based storage services will need to have an effective data archiving solution in place in the event of a catastrophic event. CoreLink Data Centers director Nav Ranajee highlighted the urgency to deploy disaster recovery tools within healthcare operations, noting that the growing relevance of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act and the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health has further spurred on efforts to implement such assets.

"Regulatory, technological and environmental factors are raising the importance of a comprehensive DR strategy," Ranajee wrote. "Healthcare IT executives must ensure that they have identified their critical systems and have plans in place to recover if hit with a natural disaster or a cyberattack. The consequences and risks are too great to ignore."

HIPAA compliance should be of major concern to organizations that rely on cloud-based services for their data storage and archiving needs. Not all cloud providers operate in accordance with federal regulations, putting their clients at risk for violation. Furthermore, an emergency scenario could disrupt a medical facility's access to their hosted storage platforms. In some instances, that data may never be recovered. Given the high stakes of healthcare data storage, administrators should backup cloud platforms with physical data archiving solutions.

Go Blu-ray for data archiving needs
Optical media currently offers the best method of securely backing up information for the long haul. In particular, data archiving solutions built upon Blu-ray discs offer a wide range of benefits, including durability, scalability and affordability. DIGISTOR's Enterprise Archive utilizes high-quality Blu-ray discs that have been designed with longevity in mind. Healthcare officials can securely store important medical records for up to 100 years with DIGISTOR's archiving tool. Furthermore, because Blu-ray media is more cost-effective than other storage formats, medical centers can scale up their critical archiving processes without breaking the bank. This means that organizations can enjoy the financial incentives of meaningful use projects instead of having to direct those funds back into their storage needs.

Even healthcare facilities that use the cloud as a primary storage format, should look to Blu-ray data archiving solutions to back up those services. A disruptive event can occur at any time, knocking servers offline and preventing administrators from accessing their hosted documents. DIGISTOR's Enterprise Archive tool ensures that such events are merely an annoyance and not the catastrophic incident that could adversely affect hospital operations for years to come. When choosing an archiving platform, medical officials should prioritize reliability, affordability and scalability over all other considerations. The DIGISTOR Enterprise Archive solution hits on all of those marks, making it ideal for healthcare use.

Hard disk drives have long served as the standard platforms for data storage, but their reliability has always been in question. The internal moving parts that power HDDs make them susceptible to damage and ultimately data loss. The Internet is filled with horror stories from people who saw their most priceless documents and files disappear into the ether thanks to a faulty storage drive. More than ever, consumers and business users alike should have a steady archiving solution in place to reclaim information that may be lost due to a malfunctioning HDD.

Writing for How Stuff Works, Ed Grabianowski highlighted some of the many issues that HDD users may encounter, including full-scale hard drive crashes. He stressed that while there are instances when HDDs will give some indication that they are reaching the end of their shelf life, many times these devices cease functioning with no notice whatsoever.

"Don't rely on warning signs to predict hard drive failure," Grabianowski wrote. "Assume that your hard drive is going to fail, and back up critical files. If you have a reliable back-up, you'll save yourself many headaches."

Don't roll the dice on long-term HDD use
Even HDDs that have provided years of flawless service have a finite shelf life. It's important that individuals don't attempt to test their luck and the limits of their hard drives by relying solely on these devices for longer than their expected lifecycle. ExtremeTech contributor Sebastian Anthony reported on a 2013 study on the average failure rate of hard drives, finding that the percentage of HDDS that continued operating fell precipitously following their third year of usage. According to his analysis, approximately half of all hard drives will fail within six years, driving home the point that everyone needs to archive their important documents.

"If you buy a hard drive today, there's a 90 percent chance that it will survive for three years," Anthony stated. "If your drive makes it to the three-year point, you would be wise to back up your data, as there's a 12 percent chance per year that your drive will die."

A member of Apple's online community further brought the need for data backups into focus, stressing that HDD failure isn't a possibility, but an inevitability. When implementing data archiving solutions, users are protecting against a data loss that will occur eventually. And given HDD's notoriously unreliable technology, that hardware failure could come at any time. The forum member explained that when weighing the cost of implementing a backup tool versus the untold value of one-of-a-kind documents and the thousands of hours of work that may have gone into their creation, the urgency for data archiving should become clear.

Blu-ray offers ideal data archiving platform
Both business users and consumers should leverage data archiving solutions that address the longevity and reliability concerns that plague traditional HDD options. To that end, a backup tool that is based on optical media will effectively meet those needs. Blu-ray discs, in particular, have the durability and longevity required to successfully carry out data archiving processes without worrying about the long-term integrity of user information. Today's products are capable of storing a great deal of information on a single disc, making them ideal for both consumer or business use. In addition, Blu-ray as a format avoids the reliability issues that make HDDs risking bets for long-term use. A single disc can effectively work for years, even when stored in relatively inhospitable environments. The lack of any internal, moving components ensures that Blu-ray discs will continue operating even if they are jostled or moved violently.

Furthermore, Blu-ray discs offer a scalability that traditional storage options simply cannot match. When paired with a Blu-ray burner and high-quality archiving software such as DIGISTOR's REWIND, this format can effectively back up as much information as a user sees fit. Because Blu-ray is a cost-effective medium, individuals can ramp up their archiving processes on the fly and keep up with their escalating storage needs. This way, users can avoid feeling the pinch of reaching the end of their archiving tool's storage capacity. With a Blu-ray burner and discs, along with REWIND software, individuals will be able to securely back up their most important and unique documents and files, saving them for later use. There's even a free trial of REWIND available for individuals to download and try out for themselves. By taking this approach to data archiving, users can avoid the headaches that occur following an inevitably hard drive failure.